Automatic wire stretching and twisting machine



A. J. GERRARD AND P. WRIGHT.

AUTOMATIC wIIIIs SIRETCIIING AND TwIsIING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 30, 17920- PatentedSept. 27, 1921.

3 SHEETS-SHEET i.

A. J. GERHARD AND P. WRIGHT.

AUTOMATIC WIRE STRETCHING AND TWISTING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. so, 1.920.

1,391,826, Pmasept. 27,1921.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

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`A. I. GERRARD AND P. WRIGHT. AUTOMATIC wmf STRETCHING AND TwIslNG MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 30, 1920. y

1,391,826. `v A Patendsep. 27,1921.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

PATENT OFFICE.

ALEC J. GERRARD AND PARVIN WRIGHT, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

AUTOMATIC WIRE STRETCHING AN I) TWISTING- MACHINE.

.Application led October 30, 1920.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that we, ALEC J. GERHARD and PARVIN WRIGHT, respectively, a subject of the King of Great Britain and a citizen of the United States, each residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Automatic Wire Stretching and Twisting Machines; and we do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to an automatic wire stretching and ltwisting machine and has for its object to provide a mechanism of this kind which will not only tension the wire and twist its ends together, but will also put the package being wired under pressure so that an unusually tight band is secured therearound.

With these and other objects in view the invention consists in the novel details of construction and combinations of parts more fully hereinafter disclosed and particularly pointed out in the claims.

Referring to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification in which like numerals designate like parts in all the views Figure 1 is a diagrammatic side elevational view of a machine made in accordance with this invention;

Fig. 2 is a front elevational View of the parts shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged sectional detail view of a portion of the parts shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged sectional view of a portion of the twisting mechanism;

Fig. 5 is an enlarged partially sectional view of the supporting head and its associated parts; and

Fig. 6 is a detail view illustrating the character of the knot or twist which is placed in the ends of the wire.

1 illustrates any suitable supporting base member.

2 illustrates a standard rising therefrom provided with the perforations or holes 3;

4 a cross piece conveniently secured to the standard 2 as by the T head 5;

6 another T head to which the cross piece 4 is secured and in which slides the vertif cally disposed supporting and compressing member 7 as shown.

Specication of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 27, 1921.

Serial No. 420,739.

Surrounding the standard 2 is the sleeve like or member 8 'which is provided with the horizontally disposed member 9 secured to the T member 10 which is provided with the member 11 supporting the lower platform or plate 12, Figs. 1 and 2. The said supporting platform 12 is provided with the holding member 13 against which the shooks 14 or other articles to be packaged rest during the packaging operation. Said platform 12 is further provided with the plate like member 15 against which the shooks or other articles 14 also take, While they are being held in position for banding.

.The said upper head T member 5 is provided with a curved supporting member 17 to which is rigidly attached the circular,- stationary, disk like member 18 through which passes the shaft 19 having loosely seall asfwill be clear from cured thereto at its one end the power wheel 2O and secured thereto at its other end the pinion 21 meshing with the rack 22 with which the compressing member 7 is pro-l vided, as best shown in Fig. 2. The said shaft 19 is further supported in the curved member 23 with which the T head 6 is provided, all as will be clear from Figs. 1 and 2. The said lower T member 8 readily slides up and down the main standard 2, and is secured in its adjusted position by any suit-- able means, for example, a pin 24 which enters the holes 3, so that shooks 14 may be placed upon the platform 12 in any desired adjusted position, preparatory to the banding operation. The said compressing member 7 at its lower end 27 see Fig. 8, enters the socket in the casting 28 or frame work of the wire tensioning and twisting mechanism 29, which has a Hat bottom or surface 30 adapted to rest upon the upper surface of the pile of shooks, and thus constitutes a compressing surface adapted to squeeze or compress the shooks 14 between itself and the lower platform 12 when pressure is exerted on the compressing member 7, in the manner about to be disclosed. Said pressure is readily applied from the mechanism described below to the said member 7 and to the shooks 14 upon turning the power wheel 20 by hand or by other means, and this causing the shaft 19 and pinion 21 to lower said compressing member 7 and said surface 30 while the lower platform 12 is held stationary, all as will be readily understood from what follows.

face 30 were locked or firmly held in its depressed position. To accomplish this last named result, I provide a lock for the wheel 20 as follows, and which will be readily understood from Fig. 5 of the drawings.

The said power wheel 20, as above stated, is loosely mounted on the shaft 19, while the slotted member 33 is rigidly mounted pn said shaft. Said slotted member has near each of its ends a pivot pin 34 which carry the pivoted dogs 35 each having the curved surfaces 36 and 37. Said dogs also have near said curved surfaces the pins 38 which pass through the slots 39 with which said member 33 is provided. Said pins 38, as best shown in Fig. 1, project into the path of travel of the spokes 40 of the power wheel 20, and thus upon the turning of said wheel 2O said spokes are forced to contact with said pins 38 and therefore to turn said slotted member 33 and said shaft 19 by reason of the said pins 38 reaching the ends of the slots 39 and consequently forcing the member 33 .to turn said shaft 19. The disk like member 18 being stationary, the curved surfaces 37, or 36, as the case may be, which are somewhat eccentric, will frictionally slide over said disk 18 to any position to which the said dogs 35 may be carried. On the other hand, said curved surfaces 36 and 37 being eccentric or somewhat wedge shaped, should the resiliency of the shooks 14 tend to reverse the movement of the compressing member 7 and shaft 19, one of said surfaces 36 and 37 will wedge against the surfaces of the disk 18 and thus prevent the return movement of said shaft 19. In other words, by the means just disclosed the wheel 20 may be turned by hand so as to bring any desired pressure upon the shooks 14 or other packages to be banded, and the dogs 35 will lock the said surface 30 in its compressed position. In order to release said dogs 35 it is only necessary to reverse the motion of the wheel 20, whereupon the pins 38 will be forced to the other end of the' slots 39 and thus not only unlock the wedging action of said dogs but will slide said dogs around the surface of the disk 1.8 in a direction opposite to that first taken by said dogs.

The mechanism for automatically tensioning the band or wire 45 and twisting its ends together while under tension, is, or may be, substantially the same as that disclosed in our copending application No. 391678, filed June 25, 1920, and entitledAutomatic wire tensioning and tying machine. This said mechanism, `which we have designated col- 1 ctively by the numeral 29, consists in a suitable frame work having mounted therein a 39 which receives the bights 50 and 51 of the wire to be twisted, and which bi hts are held on each side of said twisting inion 48 as by the means 52, 53, and 54. hat is t0 say, when bight 5() of the wire is first secured in the means 52, it passes between the pins 53, into the slot 49 of the pinion 48, it passes a slot in the post 54, it then passes around the shooks 14 or other articles to be wired, it next returns, passes through the slot in the post or other device 52 alongside of the first bight 50, whereupon it becomes the bight 51, and passes between the pins 53 through the slot 49 of the twisting pinion 48 through the slot in the post 54 and finally into one of the slots 55 with which the tensioning wheel 56 is provided, all as will be clear from Fig. 3 of the drawings. rlhe shaft 57 carrying the driving pin 58 is .conveniently turned by any suitable means, such, for example, as the gear wheel 59, and the turning of said shaft 57 and drive pin 58 will turn the worm sleeve 60 and thus turn the tensioning wheel 56 in a counterclockwiseV direction, as seen in Fig. 3, until a predetermined tension has been exerted upon the said bight 51 of the wire 45. The exact tension which will be placed upon the said bight 51 will be determined by the compresslon of the. spring 61 which may be ad- )usted .by the nut 62', all as is explained in o ur said copending application above .nentloned, and when this said tension has been reached a continued motion ofthe pin 58 will force said pin to leave the slot 59 in the sleeve 60 thus forcing said'sleeve toward the rlght as shown in Fig. 3. The movement of the sleeve 60 toward the right permits the sleeve 62 to likewise move toward the right under the action of the spring 63, and this movement of said sleeve 62 causes the slot 64 to engage the driving pin 58, and therefore a continued rotationv of the said shaft 57 1n the same direction will, after said predetermined tension has been reached, cause sa1d sleeve 62 to rotate and with said sleeve there will rotate a driving-pinion 46, gear 47 and the twisting pinion 48, all as is fully ie'xplained in our said copending applica- 67 represents a rotatingl cutter which through the lever 68 and the lug 69 rigid w1th the gear 47 is operated at the end of the twlsting operation to cut the bight 51 of -the wire and not to cut the bight 50, all as is likewise made clear in said copending application.

It thus results that after the supporting platform 12 has been properly adjusted and secured in position by the pin 24 the turning of the powerwheel 2O in 4a clockwise direction, as seen in Figs. 2 and 5, will depress the compression member 7 and the compress1on surface 30 of the machine to compress the shooks 14 or other packages to be'wi'red.

It is clear that the dogs 35 will hold said shooks in a compressed position while the operator secures one end or bight 50 of the wire 45 in the post 52 and after passing the same entirely around the package to be banded its other end 5l is secured in one of the slots 55 of the tensioning wheel 56. After this is done, a continuous movement of the shaft 57 which is conveniently driven by power not shown through the power gear 59, will automatically tension the bight 51 of the wire 45 to a predetermined degree, whereupon the twisting pinion 48 will automatically twist the bights 50 and 51 of the wire together into a knot of the character shown in Fig. 6, and a further continued rotation of the power gear 59 will sever the said bight 51 of the wire, whereupon the machine may be readily removed from the twisted wires by moving the same toward the left as seen in Fig. 4. The said bundle of shocks will thus have been wired or banded while in their compressed condition and with the,

`guide member l5 is beveled, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

It will now be clear that by making the supporting platform 12 adjustable as illustrated and stationary during the compressing operation, and by applying the compressing power through a hand Wheel, which is convenient to the operator, we are enabled to greatly expedite the compressing operation and thus work faster than would be the case if the compressing power were applied directly to said platform 12. It will further be evident that owing to the provision of the gear wheel 59, an electric or other motor, not shown, may be readily geared thereto, so that said motor may run continuously during the tensioning and twisting operation, and thus again save time in the banding procedure.

It is obvious that those skilled in the art may vary the details of construction, as well as the arrangement of parts without departing from the spirit of the invention, and therefore, it is not desired to be limited to the above disclosure except as may be required by the claims.

1. In a wire tying machine the combination of means for compressing a bundle; means for holding one end of wire while being passed around ,the compressed bundle; means for automatically tensloning said wire to a predetermined degree after passing the same around the compressed bundle; and

means for twisting together two bights of said wire while under tension, substantially as described.

2. In a wire tying machine the combination of means for compressing a bundle; means for holding one end of a wire while being passed around the compressed bundle; fmeans for automatically tensioning said wire yfto a predetermined degree after passing the same around the compressed bundle; means for twisting together two bights of said wire while under tension; and means for automatically severing one .of said bights at the end of the twisting operation, substantially as described.

3. In a wire t ing machine the combination of means or compressing a bundle; means for holding the bundle compressed during the wiring operation; means for holding one end of a wire while being passed around the compressed bundle; means for automatically tensioning said wire to a predetermined degree after passing the same around the compressed bundle; and means for'twisting together two bights of said wire while under tension, substantially as described.

4. In a wire tying machine the combination of means for compressing a bundle; an automatically operating dog for holding the bundle compressed durlng the wiring operation; means for holding one end of awvire while being passed around the compressed bundle; means for automatically tensioning said wire to a predetermined degree after passing the same around the compressed bundle; and means for twisting together two bights of said wire while under tension, substantially as described.

5. In a wire tying machine the combination of means comprising a shaft, a hand wheel loosely mounted on said shaft and connections between said wheel and shaft for compressing a bundle; means for holding said bundle compressed; means for holding one end of a wire while being passed around the compressed bundle; means for automatically tensioning said wire to a predetermined degree after passing the same around the compressed bundle; and means for twisting together two bights of said wire while under tension, substantially as described.

6. In a wire tying machine the combination of means for compressing a bundle; adjustable supporting means for holding the bundle during the compressing operation; means for holding one end of a wire while being passed around the compressed bundle; means for automatically tensioning said wire to a predetermined degree after passing the same around the compressed bundle; and means for twisting together two bights of said wire while under tension, substantially as described.

7 In a wire tying machine the combination of a standard; a bundle supporting means adjustable u and down said standard; a wire tensionmg and twisting mechanism; a support for said mechanism having a flat bottom adapted to rest on and compress a package carried by said supporting means; means-for moving said wire tensioning and twisting mechanism and said support to cause the bottom of the latter to compress said package; and automatic means to lock said flat bottom in its compressing position, substantially as described.

8. In a wire tying machine the combination of a standard; a bundle supporting means adjustable u and down said standard; a wire tensionlng and twisting mechanism; a frame carrying said mechanism having a fiat bottom adapted to rest on and compress a package carried by said supporting means; means comprising a hand wheel, a shaft, and connections for moving said wire tensioning and twisting mechanism and said frame to cause the bottom of the latter to compress said package; and automatic means'to lock said flat bottom in its compressing position, substantially as described.

9. In a wire tying machine the combina'- tion of a standard; a bundle supporting means adjustable u and down said standard; a wire tensioning and twisting mechanism; a supporting frame for said mechanism having a flat bottom adapted to rest on and compress a package carried by said supporting means; means associated with said wire tensioning and twisting mechanism by which the wire will automatically be tensioned to a predetermined degree before it is twisted; means for movin said wire tensioning and tvr'stin mec anism and said frame to cause the ottom of the latter to compress said ackage; and automatic means to lock said at bottom in its com ressing position, substantially as described).

10. In a wire tying machine the combination of a standard; a bundle supporting means adjustable u and down said standard; a wire tensiomng and twisting mechanism; a supporting frame for said mechanism having a flat bottom adapted to rest on and compress a package carried by said supporting means; means associated with said mechanism for holding 'one end of the wire while it is being tensioned; means associated with said mechanism for automatically tensioning the wire to a predetermined degree; means associated with said mechanism for severing the other end of the wire after the twisting operation; means for moving said wire tensioning and twisting mechanism and said frame to cause the bottom of the latter to compress said package; and automatic means to lock said flat bottom in its compressing position, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof we aix our signatures.

ALEC J. GERRARD. PARVIN WRIGHT. 

